Field of the Invention
This invention relates to products for home brewing; and more particularly, to a filter assembly for use with a wide mouth carboy; and home brewing kits comprising the same.
Description of the Related Art
Home brewing of coffee and tea has long been practiced, and various products have been provided for home brewing. For example, tea or coffee grounds are conventionally placed in an apparatus and brewed with hot water to create a brewed drink.
In an effort to summarize the crowded art of home-brewing and beverage infusers, the following exemplary references are described.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,233, issued Jun. 3, 1997 to Melvin L. Levinson, titled “METHODS FOR PREPARING A COFFEE, TEA AND MILK BEVERAGE”, describes a “French press” type brewing apparatus and related methods for preparing a beverage. The apparatus generally includes a vessel configured to receive water and solid material for brewing in the water; a plunger-strainer, and a lid. The plunger-strainer is used to strain the solid material from the brewed beverage. One problem with French press style brewing is that a volume of liquid remains in the bottom portion of the vessel subsequent to plunging/straining. This volume becomes waste. Moreover, the French press is not suitable for home brewing of beer and other alcohol-containing fermentation type beverages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,473, issued Dec. 7, 1999 to Henry S. Milone, titled “BEVERAGE INFUSION DEVICE”, describes a device configured to enable infusion of a beverage. The device includes a handle portion and a bore therethrough. Material is placed within the bore and a porous pouch is used to infuse the material with surrounding water when submerged therein for making a beverage. One problem with this device includes the submersion of the device, which makes for difficulty in removing from the liquid. Additionally, the material is not capable of being pressed to expel oils into the beverage liquid.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,684,756, issued Feb. 3, 2004 to Helen Kerr, titled “TEA INFUSER WITH MANUAL AGITATOR”, describes an infuser vessel for containing solid particles while immersed in a liquid, such as loose tea leaves in hot water, where the perforated infuser vessel includes a manually moveable piston operated with a flexible wire topped with a manual grip extending upwardly from the liquid, whereby tea leaves within the vessel may be manually agitated to increase the speed and efficiency of infusion, while the manual grip remains high and dry above the liquid. Though this infuser is capable of agitating material when brewing, it is not capable of plunging to extract substantially the liquids and oils therein for communicating into the surrounding beverage.
In sum, conventional home brewing apparatuses are designed to infuse oils or flavors into liquids using a floating filter chamber and other techniques, but there has yet to be provided an infusing device capable of each of: (i) maintaining separation of solids from liquid in a brewing apparatus; (ii) agitating material within the device to enhance brewing efficiency; (iii) communicating substantially all oils and flavors from the device to the surrounding liquid; and (iv) removing the device from the surrounding liquid without penetrating a surface of the liquid to retrieve the device.
There is a modern trend in home brewing of alcohol-containing beverages, particularly wine and beer. In the home brewing of beer, it is sometimes advantageous to provide hops in a removeable filter such that the hops can be removed after boil. Moreover, certain beers benefit from the introduction of hops after fermentation known as “dry hopping”, which provides added hop aroma and flavor to the finished beer.
There is a need for an improved hop filtering device for use in home brewing.